Ozymandias, I understand your
Ozymandias, I understand your frustration.Anyone holding the mainstream party view should not oppose the Occupy movement, but should instead be delighted that their long-ignored and ridiculed views are at long last being vindicated. More importantly, they should get down to their nearest occupation and support it. The occupiers don’t need bloody leaflets or smart arses with all the answers or Socialist Standards — not even the totally brilliant and correct articles by Stuart Watkins — they need practical support.The fact that the current protests are small and staffed by the usual suspects (if true, which it isn’t, not entirely anyway) is irrelevant. The protests in America started small and with the usual suspects, but exploded into something bigger, something still growing and developing, mostly in hugely positive directions from a working-class and/or socialist viewpoint. One of the interesting things about it is that the anarchist usual suspects have succeeded in “imposing” (inspiring?) a leaderless, democratic structure to the whole thing – and one that is brilliantly designed so as to stop old left groups swamping it, winning a majoritarian decision, then taking it over. From the point of view of action, this means everyone can get involved, regardless of their political views. From the point of view of politics, it means the discussions can stay open-ended and ongoing, with no one group or perspective able to stamp its authority on it, other than from the point of broadest principles (We are the 99%; This is what democracy looks like).So, most members have got it all wrong. The fact that Henry Georgeists and ‘make capitalism nicer’ folk and people who are not in the slightest anti-capitalist can go along and participate and have their views respected and taken into account, while political discussions go on and on in an open-ended way, at the same time as more and more people are rallied into it on the basis of very broad principles (class conscious, pro-democracy), is a very good thing! As for the small size and scope of the British as opposed to American occupations, this is true. But the crisis is already more visibly and obviously hurting the working class in America, and that pain and hurt will be arriving on our shores very soon (not that it hasn’t already started of course). That could easily swell the Occupy movement here – and the occupations are already there for them, ready and waiting. November 30 could be a turning point, I certainly hope so.Above Adam says he was disappointed that the protestors had taken down the banner saying “Capitalism is crisis” and put one up saying “What would Jesus do?” But you’re wrong about that as well! The camp’s immediate aim and objective was to keep the public space they had created, and that meant defeating the St Paul’s legal action. If old anarchists and socialists had had their way, they’d have just gone into full, hostile, confrontation mode, and lost, heavily, to the police. The Occupy movement in general is far more creative and positive and clever than that. What better way to break St Paul’s than to appeal to the moral principles they supposedly uphold? In any case, it worked. The church did not want the PR disaster of a violent break up of explicitly peaceful, even Christian!, protestors, at their church, supposedly a place of peace and worship.Another thing to notice about Occupy in America: the old slogan about anarchism being a game the police win must be thrown on the scrap heap of history. The police are certainly violently attacking the movement. But every time they do, their every action is broadcast around the world, and the protest movement returns in ever greater numbers. The police are losing. (Incidentally, the movement is also proving something that some SPGB members have been waffling about for ages: the democratic and revolutionary potential of the new communications technologies.)Really, what’s not to like? When members say, “It’s not socialist though is it?” they are betraying that they actually believe the old caricature – that the revolution isn’t worth starting till everyone’s read and fully agreed with their copy of the Socialist Standard, and that it shouldn’t start anywhere but parliament.All the bestStuart